Defenders of the Force Episode 6: The Fading Spirit
by EsmeAmelia
Summary: The latest Revolutionaries attack has left Han in a coma. As the Solos and Skywalkers struggle to find a cure, Ahsoka sets out to catch the person responsible. Meanwhile, Han's spirit is trapped in his dreams with only a ghost to guide him. Sixth story in a series featuring Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, the droids, and OCs.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Thanks again to everyone who's following this series. I still own nothing except my OCs.

"Defenders of the Force Episode 6: The Fading Spirit"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 1

"Dad . . . Dad . . . come on Dad . . . you can do it . . . wake up . . ."

Han's head was pounding. His daughter's voice sounded like it was calling to him from the top of a hill. His eyelids felt glued shut, trapping him in swirling darkness.

"It's all right, Dad," Jaina's voice continued. "Mom called the doctor and a medical transport should be here in a few minutes."

Doctor . . . medical transport . . . his lungs seemed to tighten at the thought. The hard, cold floor pressed against his back and neck.

"Han?" There was Leia's voice, stripped of its authority and toughness, stimulating Han's breath to deepen.

"Han, are you awake?"

"Llllll . . ."

Now her soft hand was rubbing his cheek. "You're going to be all right, Han."

"Lllll . . ." Why wasn't his mouth letting him speak? Why couldn't his eyes open? What had taken his body prisoner?

"I'm here Han," Leia continued, her voice becoming more desperate. "I've got you. You'll be fine."

Han focused his entire being on saying her name, letting her know that he could hear her, but once again he couldn't get past the first letter.

"It's okay," Leia whispered, her thumb rubbing his forehead, pressing against his skull. "It's okay, you'll be fine . . ."

And he heard nothing more.

. . .

Leia stared down at the hospital bed where her husband lay, tubes in his arms and up his nose, a heart monitor steadily beeping, Jacen's old toy bantha resting by his shoulder. She watched his eyes for any sign of movement, any hint of waking up, but they remained still.

Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin stood on the other side of the bed, Jaina rubbing her father's hand and Jacen sitting the bantha back up whenever it slouched over. Anakin merely stared down at his father as if trying to reach out to him.

Why did any of them ever trust that droid? Leia bit her lip, nearly drawing blood. Why did any of them _ever_ trust that droid when it was clearly malfunctioning and Han obviously _wasn't _all right? Maybe if they had gone to a different medcenter in the first place, they would have been able to stop whatever it was before _this_ happened.

"We came as soon as we heard."

Leia heard her brother's voice and sensed all the Skywalkers' Force signatures, but she didn't look away from her husband.

"How is he?" Rianna asked.

Leia gritted her teeth. "Well _look_ at him. How do you _think _he is?"

Before she could continue, Chewie rushed into the room and ran up to the hospital bed. The instant he saw Han he let out a wail that needed no translation.

"I'm sorry, Chewie," said Luke, patting the Wookiee's back.

That drove Leia to shoot a glare at her brother. "You're _sorry?_ Is that all you can say? Why don't you explain how _your_ droid said Han was perfectly healthy?" She gestured down at her husband. "Does _this _look perfectly healthy to you?"

Luke gulped as he looked down at his brother-in-law. "I don't know why the droid said that, I really don't." He put his real hand on his sister's shoulder. "Did the doctors figure out what's wrong with him?"

"The results of his blood test haven't come in yet," said Leia. She swallowed, reaching up to grasp her brother's hand. "As of right now, they're stumped."

"I bet this has something to do with my blood," said Owen.

The others all looked at him with eyebrows raised. "Your blood?" asked Rianna.

"Yeah," said Owen. "They took my blood when they kidnapped me."

"What?" Luke, Leia, and Rianna all exclaimed at once.

"Why didn't you _tell_ us?" asked Luke.

Owen gulped, his eyes widening like a child in trouble for something he didn't know was wrong. "I_ told _you they stuck needles in me." He shuddered, his eyes lowering. "I didn't wanna talk more about it."

Luke stared down at Han's motionless body. "Oh no," he murmured, his breath growing short. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"What?" asked Mae.

Luke took a deep breath. "Master Yoda once told me that long ago, soon after midichlorians were discovered, a Jedi thought he could transfer Force-sensitivity to others. He found some non-Force-sensitive volunteers and injected them with his blood, thinking that if he could spread the Force around, there could be more Jedi to protect the galaxy." He swallowed. "But the experiment didn't work."

"What happened?" asked Jaina.

Luke took another deep breath. "The test subjects' bodies rejected the transferred midichlorians. Every single one of them died."

. . .

Ahsoka's eyes shifted around as she drove her speeder through the busy skies of Coruscant. The Force signature she had sensed in the vent was still on the planet, she was sure of it. Why the little bastard hadn't immediately left Coruscant after shooting Han, she didn't know, but whatever the reason, he or she was still here.

"Where are you?" Ahsoka whispered, reaching out with the Force, concentrating on the faint Force signature buried in the sea of other beings. The chilly wind blew through her headstalks and the other speeders were blaring, but she forced herself to ignore it. "Where are you?" she repeated.

Thousands of Force signatures moved this way and that, making Ahsoka dizzy. She blinked hard, reminding herself to pay attention to the traffic. "Where are you?" she whispered yet again.

"Hey, you need a little help?"

Ahsoka stole a quick glance to the side and there was Master Uma driving in the adjacent speeder skyway. "No," the former padawan said quickly, "I don't need help."

"Really?" said Uma. "I beg to differ, given that you never actually _finished _your Jedi training."

"I've been trained enough to find our little fugitive."

"Maybe," said Uma, "but General Solo is fading fast. If we work together, we just _might _be able to get that fugitive to give us an antidote before Solo dies."

Ahsoka took a deep breath, sensing hostility coming from Uma but at the same time knowing she was right. "Okay," she said, "just don't get in the way."

. . .

Han didn't know where he was, but he knew he was exhausted. His eyes were sealed shut, his center of consciousness pulling him to sleep. Whatever he was lying in, it was soft, warm, easy to sink into and just drift off . . .

"Han?"

The voice was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He didn't automatically recognize it, but it pulled at him, as if it lurked somewhere deep in his subconscious. Maybe he would dream about it when he went to sleep . . .

"Han?"

No, whatever the voice wanted could wait . . . right now he needed sleep . . . sleep . . .

"Han, you _need _to wake up."

The sudden urgency in the voice jolted memories into his head. Sitting on the bed, the airy warmth of a ghost sitting beside him - with that thought his eyes popped open to blackness penetrated only by a transparent woman surrounded by blue light.

"Mom?" he whispered.

Rya Solo was staring down at her son, her eyes full of worry, which stimulated another memory of collapsing on the balcony of his apartment. Immediately it felt like his soul was tipping over the edge of a chasm. His arms wrapped around his chest and his knees bent inwards as if he were trying to cocoon himself from the suddenly-cold air.

"I'm . . . I'm dead, aren't I?" he gasped out.

Rya leaned over to gently touch her son's cheek. "No, not yet, but your body is struggling to stay alive."

"Wait, what?" Han exclaimed. "My body's . . . what the hell . . . where are we?"

"You are inside your mind," said Rya.

Han took a deep breath - or at least it felt like he was taking a deep breath. "So . . . I'm dreamin'?"

"In a way," said Rya. "Your body's unconscious, but it's fighting the invading species."

"What? What invading species? What the hell are you talkin' about?"

Rya stroked her son's head. "Come with me."

As the implications of that phrase hit Han, he immediately flinched away from his mother. "If I ain't already dead, I sure as hell ain't gonna go with you."

"You'll come with me if you want to _live,_" Rya said in a voice that was almost scolding. Han wondered if she would have sounded like this when he misbehaved if she had lived. "You're slowly dying as we speak." She held out her hand. "Come on."

Han found himself shivering. "H-how do I know you ain't here to fetch me for the dead?"

"I'm your _mother,"_ Rya said, sounding slightly offended.

"Yeah, well maybe you want both your kids with you."

Rya gave a slight sigh. "Sweetheart, you have a family who loves you and a life to return to." She spread her fingers out in a welcoming gesture. "You have to trust me here."

Han stared at his mother's hand for several moments, the chills of wherever this was biting into his skin. Leia, Chewie, his children, the Skywalkers . . . they needed him to live, but this was a gamble. A gamble that meant trusting his life to a woman he hardly knew, even if she _was _his mother.

"Han," Rya said in pleading voice, "trust me."

Han breathed in, letting the cold air fill whatever passed for his lungs when he was dreaming.

And he took her hand.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks as always for the reviews! Again, sorry for the long gap between updates. I got a new job and participated in NaNoWriMo and I've been generally busy.

"Defenders of the Force Episode 6: The Fading Spirit"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 2

"Where are we?"

"We're still in your mind, Han," said Rya.

"Well yeah," said Han, "but _where _are we?"

The ghost shrugged. "Where do _you _think this is?"

Han rolled his eyes. "I don't know, that's why I'm askin' you."

"Well, take a look around."

Han did as he was told. They were in someone's living room and it had the basic living room necessities: two couches, a stone fireplace, a holovid, some shelves lining the walls, various children's drawings decorating the mantle, but there was a smell in the air: a familiar spicy smell that almost made Han feel like he had been here before.

Then he saw it.

On the caf table sat an infant seat with a baby in it. He had a head of downy brown hair and was wearing a fluffy green sleeper with a picture of a Jedi Fighter on it. He was fingering with a teething ring and cooing to himself like any other baby would do, but for some reason Han found himself unable to look away from him.

"Han!"

Han's heart jumped as his head reflexively looked up. In ran a seven-year-old boy whom Han had previously seen as a ghost, but here he was alive, immature, carefree.

His older brother, Ky Solo.

"Hey Han!" the boy squealed, running up to the baby and leaning in close to him. "You look busy," he said in a high, singsong voice. "Is that ring keepin' you busy? Huh? Huh?"

The adult Han stumbled backward into the wall, his breath coming out in pants.

"Boys!" came another voice, a low female voice, and in came the woman Han had traveled here with, only now she had no blue light surrounding her and her body had actual substance. Her hair was tied up in a bun out of which several stray strands hung.

"Hey Mom," said Ky, "I think Han's gonna talk soon."

"Oh really?" said the living Rya, bending over and picking up the baby. "What makes you say that?"

"He's makin' lots of sounds," said Ky. "I think he even tried to say my name." He patted his brother's side. "Can you say 'Ky,' Han? Can you? Can you?"

The baby made a high sound in response, which Ky translated as another attempt to say his name.

Meanwhile the adult Han was trembling, gripping an end table for support. "Wh-why did you bring me here?" he gasped.

The ghost Rya was staring out at the figures of the past, barely turning her head to look at her adult son. "Truth be told, I didn't know what memory your mind would bring us to first."

"Memory?" Han exclaimed. "I sure as hell don't remember _this!"_

"Your _conscious _mind doesn't, but your _subconscious_ holds many more memories than your conscious mind can." She went back to gazing out at the living version of herself with her sons. "My boys . . ."

Han swallowed. "So . . . how're Ky and Dad doin'?"

"They're fine," said Rya, not taking her eyes off the memory. "Well, as fine as you can be in our . . . condition."

Han looked back at his brother, realizing that this had to have been soon before the boy died. He had appeared around the same age as this when Han saw his ghost.

"Ky . . . he ain't gonna grow up . . . ever," he found himself saying. He shifted his focus back to his ghost mother. "Is he?"

Now Rya seemed unable to look away from her children and the living version of herself. "Well, right now we're all just trying to get used to . . . everything, since you guys saved us from the netherworld. As for Ky growing up, well, his childhood was cut short anyway."

"Yeah, but stayin' a kid _forever . . ._"

"We're not here to talk about that," Rya said quickly, sharply cutting him off.

Han swallowed again, looking once more at his brother - his _older _brother trapped in an eternal childhood, playing with his baby brother, completely oblivious to the fate that awaited him.

"So . . ." he said carefully, "what _are_ we doin' here?"

Rya looked at her living son in complete seriousness. "You're dying, but not in an ordinary way. The invaders are eating away at you, body _and _soul, so you need to fight back."

"And . . . how'm I s'posed to do that?"

Rya looked out again at the happy family. "You need to fight with your very being, and for that, you need strength." She put her formless hand on her son's shoulder. "Maybe your mind thinks you'll gain strength from seeing this."

"Why?" Han exclaimed. "What's this gotta do with me bein' able to fight whatever it is?"

"Well, why don't you look? Take a good, long look."

Han wanted to protest some more, but for some reason he found himself unable to do so. He did has his mother instructed and looked back at the long-forgotten time. Rya was bouncing her baby in her arms, alternately humming and singing lyrics that sounded like she was making them up on the spot.

"My little Han is so special," she sang, "my little Han is so nice, I love him so much I'll kiss him twice!" With that, she kissed the baby's head twice and Ky giggled, playing with the baby's toes.

The adult Han gulped, his eyes unblinking. "This . . ." he whispered. ". . . I lost this."

The ghost Rya nodded slowly.

Han's breath was growing shallow, his eyes growing damp. _This, _the family he never knew until recently, whom he _still_ didn't know very well . . . what could have been if they had lived? Would he have never become a smuggler, never fought in the Rebellion?

Would he have never met Leia?

Suddenly Han's head was spinning. He collapsed against the wall, sinking to the floor, closing his eyes, though his mother's singing followed him into his head.

The warm air of his mother's ghost hand brushed his face, but he didn't open his eyes. "Sweetheart," Rya murmured, "it's all right."

"_No,"_ said Han. "It's _not_ all right. You guys died a horrible death and that's terrible, but it just occurred to me that if you didn't . . . I might not've met my wife. Yeah . . . that sounds awful, doesn't it."

The warm air stroked his cheek, causing him to slowly open his eyes. "Han . . . I understand," Rya said in a slow voice. "This is the life you never had, but the life you _do_ have is precious to you."

"I want to leave," Han said, struggling to make his voice firm. "Take us to another memory or whatever, just get us outta here."

Rya gazed one last time at her living self with her two sons, then she looked back at Han and nodded. "All right. But remember, I can't control where your mind takes us. I can only guide you."

"I don't care," said Han, "just get me outta here."

Rya nodded again. "All right, come on." With that, she took her son's hand and they were gone.

. . .

"Are you _sure_ you sensed him here?" Ahsoka asked as she and Uma entered one of Coruscant's many seedy clubs.

"We don't know it's a _him," _said Uma, her eyes darting around the club's patrons. Strippers of various species were dancing on the tables. Several customers were placing bets at the sabacc table with slurred speech. The music playing over the speakers seemed to be racing around the room.

Ahsoka breathed deeply, remembering the many clubs and taverns she and her master had visited on missions. It seemed like people always hid in places like this after committing heinous acts. "Okay, are you sure you sense him or her here?"

"Yes," said Uma. "Now be quiet."

Ahsoka bit her lip in order to refrain from saying something sarcastic about being ordered around by someone younger than herself. Whatever their age difference, the fact remained that Uma was a master and Ahsoka never even became a knight.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, taking in the smell of alcohol and smoke, feeling around for that Force signature among the many patrons.

"There," Uma said suddenly, pointing the direction of the bar.

"Are you sure?"

"You really _didn't _finish your training, did you?" said Uma, slightly rolling her eyes.

"Maybe not," said Ahsoka, "but I certainly chased my share of fugitives into seedy clubs in my time."

"Then I guess you're enjoying being out in the field again," said Uma. "Anyway, let's go."

The two Jedi slowly made their way closer and closer to the bar, trying not to call attention to themselves. By the time they passed the sabacc table, Ahsoka could feel the little bastard's Force signature, but she still couldn't tell exactly _where _he was.

"The Jedi can't last too much longer," someone at the bar said with a rough male voice, catching Ahsoka's interest.

"Nope," said another voice, this one deep and female, "Master Skywalker can only hold on for so long. Even an ancient Jedi padawan can't help him."

"Ancient?" Ahsoka exclaimed in a whisper.

By now they were close enough to see that the female voice was coming from a Twi'lek who was leaning against the bar, but Ahsoka still couldn't tell who the male voice was.

"But whatever," said the male voice, "all I know is that if I had kids in that Academy, I'd have pulled them out a long time ago."

Ahsoka ground her teeth as she and Uma inched closer. She reached out with the Force, feeling again for Han's attacker.

"I don't think Master Skywalker can handle it," the male voice continued. "But you know, because his daughter's a student now, he wants to look tough for her sake."

"Which just might get her killed," said the female voice. "Along with all his other students."

"Ahsoka!" Uma's sudden whisper drew Ahsoka out of her eavesdropping.

"What?" the former padawan whispered back.

"I think I found our culprit."

. . .

Leia squeezed her husband's hand as she breathed in and out, in and out, concentrating on his Force signature, which felt like straining to reach something in the distance. She rubbed his fingers one at a time, pressing on his callouses as if that would call him back.

"Han," she whispered, "stay with me."

The heart monitor kept beeping, beeping, beeping. Doctors kept checking on Han, but they always said his condition was unchanged. The children were alternately pacing and staring down at Han, while Chewie hadn't gotten up from his seat next to the bed. Luke and Rianna had been calling various people at the Jedi Temple, frantically asking if there was any known cure for whatever had killed the midichlorian test subjects, but no one had any answers.

Leia leaned over and kissed Han's forehead, tasting the salty sweat it was drenched in, remembering the stories of a lover's kiss magically waking the dead. Maybe there was a point in her early childhood when she believed such stories were true, that a true love's kiss really did have magical powers stronger than death itself.

If only she could believe it now. For a moment she wished the stories were true and Han would awaken now, but she could only allow herself that fantasy for a tiny second. This was the real world, where no magic kiss would wake Han.

"The results are in."

All heads turned up at the doctor entering the room. Her blue face was stretched out in worry as she gazed at the family for several moments.

"Well?" asked Leia.

The doctor took a deep breath. "There's . . . an abnormality in his blood."

"Is it midichlorians?" Luke immediately asked.

The doctor inhaled deeply again, her eyes darting among the family members before settling on Leia. "It _might _be, but if it is, they aren't neatly embedded in his cells like they are with Force-sensitives." She stared unblinking at Leia. "For his body, it's an invasion, like a germ." She swallowed. "His body is fighting . . . but it's losing."


End file.
